J. AM. CHEM. SOC. 2025, 147, 40236-40243
PEE CRYSTALS: Instead of liquid urine, reptiles produce urates—solid chunks of uric acid.
Here’s a strange fact: Reptiles don’t produce liquid pee. Instead, they pass solid chunks called urates. Recently, a team of chemists and herpetologists—scientists who study reptiles—examined urates from 21 reptile species to learn more about their unusual method of excreting waste.
The scientists found that reptile urates are composed of microscopic spheres containing tiny crystals of uric acid. Uric acid is a waste product. In the human body, a buildup of uric acid can cause painful conditions like gout and kidney stones. But it doesn’t have the same effect on reptiles. “Reptiles have found a clever way to safely eliminate uric acid by packaging it into little spheres of crystals,” says Jennifer Swift, a chemist at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. The team hopes their discovery will spark new ideas for how to treat illnesses caused by excess uric acid in humans.